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A comment on How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System. Parent comment

Re:How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System by divbzero on Monday November 02, 2020 @09:04PM (#24975650)
It’s mind blowing not only how our body mimics natural selection with B cells, but also how it generates the genetically diverse B cells in the first place. [1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V(D)J_recombination "V(D)J recombination"

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System by nextos on Monday November 02, 2020 @09:10PM (#24975681)
Yes, and if you have different versions of the HLA gene, you get different distributions as a result of V(D)J recombination.

So, in a way, different individuals have different immune strategies. For example, super-responders to HIV tend to be HLA-B57. This HLA "version" trades better response to virus that mutate quickly for more chances of autoimmunity as thymic selection is less stringent (because HLA-B57 presents less selfpeptides in the thymus).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System by DrAwdeOccarim on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @05:15AM (#24978191)
Woah. Thanks for sharing that. I did not know that. What a fine balance!
[ Parent | on HN ]